A man whose dream came true in his 57th year

VISAKHAPATNAM: A man, who was on the verge of attaining the age of superannuation, was shocked and pleasantly surprised when he received his letter of appointment for a job that he yearned for more than two decades. In the process, he lost not just the time, but almost the prime of his entire life.

Allaka Kedareswara Rao of Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh was selected for the job of a teacher through the test he had appeared for 24 years ago, way back in 1998 when N Chandrababu Naidu was the Chief Minister of the undivided AP. The District Selection Committee (DSC) examination, the qualifying test for the selection, of 1998 was mired in a maze of cases and controversies and finally remained spiraled and entangled with unresolvable issues.

However, it was in his 57th year that Dame Luck smiled on him in the form of an appointment letter. The man, who was resigned to his fate after waiting eternally, remained content with selling handloom clothes to villagers, carrying the material on his bicycle. As this did not fill his starving stomach, he took to begging in Pathapatnam village.

However, as luck would have it, the officials released the list of qualified candidates, following a court order. The list consisted of his name and a few youths of the village conveyed this "shocking news" to him.

Kedaraswara Rao initially did not believe it. He had longed for years for the job of a teacher. As his joy knew no bounds when the youths started calling him 'master', a respectful way of addressing a teacher, Rao was shaken and asserted that he would take up the job, even though he only had five years of service left.

Rao told the youths that he did not know why he had not got the job during Chandrababu Naidu's regime in the undivided and truncated States of AP in his two stints.